Last week I helped out my friends Dave and Elyse over at Archive Tattoo to build and put up their new sign. It was a collaborative effort between the three of us which included refinishing some vintage marquee letters and a Japanese wood burning technique called shou sugi ban, which I was unfamiliar with until Dave presented the idea of using it on the sign.

All that wood burning was pretty fun and I was surprised at the amount of different looks you can achieve depending on how much or how little you burn the wood. Even the difference in the appearance of the the wood at different angles and depending how the light hits it can be pretty drastic.

Another fun project completed.

This little side table/magazine rack combo is a personal project I just finished. After using Pine from the queen’s wharf on my last job I was itching to use some of the wood from that site again. Luckily I had a few short pieces of Maple that were the perfect candidates for this table.

A friend presented me with a few good ideas to take this design a little further, so v2 maybe coming soon. This little guy is available for sale on my Etsy shop… Here

Yesterday I packed this on to a skid and put it on a truck, today it arrived at it’s new home. It’s a reception desk for an office space in Liberty Village here in Toronto.

The wood I used for this project is Pine from the Queen’s Wharf. A variety of wood species were salvaged from this historic structure when it was unearthed in 2006, I have used them all and they are all gorgeous. Because the wood spent so much time underground the minerals in the soil leeched into the wood and gave it a very unique color palette.

This might be my new favorite piece, maybe just because I love the odd but beautiful coloring of the wood so much. I dont know.

If you are looking for an interesting upper body work out, I suggest a few hours of using a cabinet scraper.

The project I am working on currently is on hold as I wait for wood to arrive from the kiln, so I’ve had a bit of time to do a small side job and finnish off this little bench. The bench is a personal project i’ve been working on very slowly over the last little while and i’m glad to see it finished.

I acquired the wood from a friend and I’m not sure of it’s origin or original use, but my guess is fence posts. Two of the pieces of the bench are Cedar and one is Pine. I was hoping for more contrast between the two types of wood, but once the finish went on the coloring ended up the same.

I took my lunch break on this little bench today, I’ve grown pretty fond of it. I’m kind of tempted to keep it, but I think i’m gonna have to find it a new home.

I recently finished this dining table and bench made from reclaimed pine threshing boards. The table has a multi patinated and distressed steel top, the clients wanted a rustic steel work table kind of look… oposite of my usual work with steel bases and wooden tops.

This was a really fun project for me, it was nice to get out of my comfort zone and do something a little different.

A while ago I built some stuff for Blacksmith Cycle, a high end custom cycle shop in Toronto. Shortly after opening I went and shot some photos that all ended up being unusable. So finally almost a year later I went back and took some useable shots.

I recently finished this desk made with reclaimed Oak barn board and a chemically blackened steel base (the same process used to blacken firearms).

Life went from ProTools to hand tools and I could not be happier about it. (Taken with instagram)

This little Maple slab coffee table is a personal project Iv’e been chipping away at for a little while now, spending a small portion of each day at the shop on it. It served two purposes: an experiment, and I just needed a very small coffee table.

My first time doing butterfly keys was on this table, they turned out OK but I’m glad they weren’t for a paying customer. I also tried out a new product for blackening steel which I didn’t end up liking very much; it doesn’t seem like it will stand the test of time, so again I’m glad it’s not going to a client.

All in all, I am pretty happy with this little table, especially considering the whole thing was just a test. It was good to try out some new things and also get something useable out of it.

Old to new…

I started a small job today using what I assume were fence posts at one point in time. One of my favorite parts of working with reclaimed wood is milling up the lumber and revealing whats hiding under the dry, grey layers.

Just finished this little guy… Reclaimed Cherry, resawn from a large barn timber.

So this is sort of old news now, but since this is a new blog I’m gonna mention it real quick…

This past summer my good friend Ted Power and myself were on a TV show called Deck Wars, which aired on HGTV. It was a lot of fun and now I get to perpetually look like a dork on television.

If you’re interested you can view the full episode here.

I refinished these old elevator doors for my friends over at Breadwinner Creative Agency. They’re using them in their office space to close off the boardroom when necessary.

Along with refinishing the doors I also fabricated some brackets that were welded on to the track so it could be mounted on the wall. I also modified the door hangers so they could be attached on to the elevator doors.

The doors really took on quite the transformation, unfortunately I can’t seem to find the “before” pictures so you will have to take my word for it. There were about four layers of paint that had to be striped before I got down to raw metal. After all the paint was off I went back and patinated  select areas to add contrast. Then it was just a matter of cleaning, polishing and they were done.

It was a fun project and the doors look great in their space. If I ever come across the “before” pictures maybe I will post a quick before and after.